Russia’s crypto trading criminal liability bill postponed until after the Duma elections for review

PANews, July 17 — Anatoly Aksakov, chair of the Financial Markets Committee of the State Duma of Russia, said that a bill on criminal liability for illegal cryptocurrency trading will be considered after the new State Duma election. The spring session ends on July 27; members of parliament are on recess from August to September, and progress on the bill is expected to be made during the autumn session. The bill was passed on its first reading in early July and stipulates fines and a maximum prison term of seven years. The penalty provisions will take effect on July 1, 2027. Aksakov said that Russians can only buy and sell cryptocurrencies through entities listed in the Central Bank register, and that direct P2P trading will face criminal liability, but he denied that the bill is aimed at ordinary exchange operators and P2P users.

At the same time, the country’s government’s “Digital Currency and Digital Rights Bill” has also been postponed: it was originally scheduled to take effect on July 1 but has been pushed back to September 1. Voting in the State Duma election will end on September 20.